'House' Cutthroat Bitch tries to kill Chase

I was really looking forward to tonight's episode of House and exploring why Cutthroat Bitch was back, even if just in a hallucinatory sense. Why, then, do I feel a little....discontented?

The POTW is a teenaged wrestler who drops a match when he begins hearing debilitating imaginary explosions. Which is extra interesting, since he's deaf. And he's been deaf since age 4, when he lost it due to complications from childhood meningitis. Which also means he is a good candidate for a cochlear implant, but he decided to remain deaf as it became part of his cultural identity. Which is something House cannot accept and while doing a brain biopsy has Chase put in  an implant anyway.The POTW rips it out less than a day later, causing the arrhythmia in his heart to manifest, proving one of House's theories right. But not right enough. However, we'll get to that later.

Chase and Cameron have decided against a prolonged engagement in favor of getting married in 2 weeks (I smell season finale), so we have a subplot of House taking over the planning of his bachelor party. A task he steams over Cameron and Wilson to get to and they completely let him get away with without so much as a single prank or word of real protest. Which seems disingenuous.

Throughout the differential and the party planning, there is Cutthroat Bitch. Much like the previous hallucinatory alter-ego that helped House discover that Amber was the Jane Doe on the bus, CB spends her time goading him and dropping clues that lead him down paths without him really knowing why until he gets there. But all of this falls more flat than it seems it should. None of the clues have anywhere near the impact of "What's my necklace made out of?" Perhaps because we've seen it done better before or perhaps because we are not emotionally invested enough in the POTW, or perhaps because some of the clues have to do with the name of a stripper House hired for Wilson's last bachelor party.It's Karamel - with a K.

I seem to recall it being mentioned that Karamel was from a party 9 years ago - do strippers stick in the profession that long? That aside, CB thinks House should hire Karamel in order to break up Chase and Cameron on the weak premise that she had a cat and so does Chase and they can bond over that, which leads to cheating and no wedding. And not because House wants Cameron. Just because he doesn't want anyone else to be happy. Which is something that I don't think is inherently true about the character. Sure, House is cynical and misanthropic and doesn't believe in happy-ever-after at all. But him actively working to break up a couple just because he can? He's a jerk, not a sociopath.

Which seems to be exactly what they are implying when House hides in the bathroom at the party until Chase does a body shot off Karamel and promptly goes into anaphylactic shock due to her strawberry body butter. Making House consider the possibility that his subconscious just attempted to murder Chase since he knew about the butter and Chase's allergy. His earlier self-congratulations and lamentations about his team not contributing to his brilliant diagnosis disappears in favor of sleeping pills to get rid of the CB hallucination. The team goes on to properly diagnose and save the patient - as it seems Taub was right all along - and House wakes up...to CB.

Overall there were some great moments, such as House's boom box dance to Public Enemy's Fight The Power and Wilson stumbling about in his boxer shorts. But that was overshadowed by the character inconsistency, such as House's turn as a potential killer, and Wilson and Cameron totally rolling over without a word of argument. What do you think is really going on? Was CB accurate in her original estimation that his guilt over Kutner triggered his guilt over her and that's why she is the hallucination of choice? And why is she there at all if she is not a hallucination due to sleep deprivation? Is all of this just a dream dealing with House's guilt over lost colleagues, his anger over his disability (several mentions made to it this episode), and his ultimate sense of isolation and loneliness as his co-workers all seem to be pairing up in one way or another?